Frequently it is necessary to remove excess moisture from grain such as corn, wheat, soybeans and others prior to their storage. Currently, the conventional method of doing so is by drying the grain in large, gas-fired apparatus and then conveying it into bins for storage. That apparatus typically consists essentially of a large, horizontally positioned drum, perforated around its peripheral wall, through which hot air and gases from an LP gas burner are driven by a fan. The grain is fed into the upstream end (with respect to the direction of heat flow) of the drum and transported through the latter by a suitable conveyor. The resulting contact between the grain and the heat expels moisture from the grain which together with the heat is exhausted to the atmosphere through the perforations in the drum.
Obviously, this arrangement is very prodigal of heat since so much of the latter is irretrievably lost once it is exhausted from the drum. The growing shortages of fuels and their rising costs argue for some other, less wasteful manner of drying grain in the circumstances concerned. The primary object of the present invention, therefore, is an apparatus, as well as a method, which can efficiently and yet relatively inexpensively dry grain prior to its storage.